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New here to these forums, I have spent a long time building and fixing computers, and modding them. I also have spent a lot of time working and tearing down electronics to make new stuff..blah blah introduction to my electronic background. This will be a long 1st post

I can help people out here with a lot of stuff, and can share a lot of stuff but we will get to that stuff later on in the future.

My current computers are a modded Dell XPS Studio 16 gaming laptop, an older Compaq EVO Desktop that will be a fun computer for more test modding like in this thread, and an old Toshiba laptop that blew a hard drive and most of the motherboard. As well I have a water-cooled modded phat PS3, Samsung 40'' 3D TV system, and a 1300w Home Cinema..enough with that stuff.

Here is the help part / project info.

I am fixing up this old desktop Compaq computer to use as a server and other stuff, and I am interested in mounting the screen from the broken Toshiba laptop in the case panel. Here is where it will begin. I easily have the ability to do this, I just need help with wiring and other stuff relating to connecting the laptop connections to the desktop.

I know this is a tricky thing, as laptop screens are much different from external desktop monitors, but you can tell me what you think and I will keep refreshing this thread with updates when I work on it.

I will get model #'s and photos here soon enough lol

What do you think, I think it could be a fun challenge..and I have nothing to lose here on this one

[CompuTamer]

I think the hardest thing would be getting power to the backlight and to the screen, but other than that, shouldn't be too hard to do. Just connect the right pins, and you should be pretty good to go.

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Originally Posted by CompuTamer

I think the hardest thing would be getting power to the backlight and to the screen, but other than that, shouldn't be too hard to do. Just connect the right pins, and you should be pretty good to go.

Agreed. I will tear down the laptop eventually, and post pictures of what I find regarding cables/pins/wires. Thanks!

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I tore the laptop down yesterday..with the screen and everything in great shape. I also got four canisters of paint for painting the computer - Electric yellow and Matte black. I am not going to spend more than 50$ on this computer as it is a fun junky thing to mess with.

Already made 20$ from selling extra RAM sticks that came with it and 2 disk drives that I didn't need. That paid off paint and the LED lights.

I also will be installing a flatbed scanner light to illuminate the case via 3 pin.

Looking good, but no pics yet

[kayson]

This kind of project is a little tricky, but definitely do-able. Many people have done this and there are plenty of resources on the web. It basically boils down to two things:

1. Getting something on the LCD: you need an LCD controller, and they're usually integrated solutions on laptops, so you can't pull it from there. However, with the model no. of the panel, you should be able to find a hobbyist control board you can buy that will interface directly to vga or dvi.

2. Getting power to the lcd/backlight: Your lcd probably runs off power from the controller. The backlight, however, will need inverters to bring the DC up to higher voltage AC to run the CFLs that create the light. If your laptop has this kind of backlighting, you might find the inverters somewhere that can be pulled off. Otherwise you'll have to buy some. The LCDs with LED backlights don't need inverters but will still need power.

[|/3|\|0/|/|]

Originally Posted by kayson

This kind of project is a little tricky, but definitely do-able. Many people have done this and there are plenty of resources on the web. It basically boils down to two things:

1. Getting something on the LCD: you need an LCD controller, and they're usually integrated solutions on laptops, so you can't pull it from there. However, with the model no. of the panel, you should be able to find a hobbyist control board you can buy that will interface directly to vga or dvi.

2. Getting power to the lcd/backlight: Your lcd probably runs off power from the controller. The backlight, however, will need inverters to bring the DC up to higher voltage AC to run the CFLs that create the light. If your laptop has this kind of backlighting, you might find the inverters somewhere that can be pulled off. Otherwise you'll have to buy some. The LCDs with LED backlights don't need inverters but will still need power.

I will bring up some pictures and model numbers (finally) of stuff when I get home tonight as I am on break right now. Been pretty busy lately but I did get started on the painting, it looks awesome so far. Still got to paint the drives, a few brackets, the power source, fans, front cover, and side panels. I need to buy more yellow..

pretty much going with the stock case now, as it will pretty much be hidden away in a corner.

Updates will come tonight!!

[wingman99]

How are you going to connect the input with DVI plug.

[DrSpanky]

could you harvest a desktop monitors I/O board to act as the interface?

[kayson]

Originally Posted by DrSpanky

could you harvest a desktop monitors I/O board to act as the interface?

This would only work if the LCD panels are the same (or at least use the same interface). It's definitely worth looking into though.

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Here we are, finally.

I am still short of time here, making this post and taking and putting up pictures all in about 10 mins.

I am FAR from done and I will include a few random shots of the mess so far, but I do have a half assembled and painted chassis going here. Still needs a coat to cover it up and protect it, mostly yellow so far but I am using black for most the case, and the inside will be accented yellow along with the outside.

Shots of screen, case so far, parts that are ready for paint, ready for prime, the scanner light for lighting the inside of the case, and reference numbers on the monitor. You can figure it out what is what.

I will have free time this Friday and weekend for stuff, hope to get a lot done then!

Any help is appreciated!!!


Case Back

Case Side

Sacnner Light Tube

Video Cable and Power?

Closer shot



Codes and Model Stuff

Power??

Top screen

Back of screen

That should tide you guys over for a while until the weekend. These are FAST shots so don't expect anything good..I am doing most of this on the move as of now but like I said I will get going this weekend.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

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Yikes, everything is a big dusty mess. Can't wait until it is completed with painting at least..lol

[arcanise]

ok that thing attached to the screen that has semi-transparent plastic covering it is the DC-AC adapter figure out what pins power that and try some very low volts like less than 1v DC in those pins and increase very slowly untill you get it glowing at the right brightness.

as far as the video input IIRC it is based heavily on VGA so it shouldnt be "that" hard to figure out what needs to be plugged in where.

so 15 of the hole sin that cable are the video inputs and probably 3-5 are for backlight controls for brightness etc and then a few more for power etc.

i suggest cutting the cable that runs into the DC-AC adapter and then take a known good video out put and plug in a good VGA cable to the video card then on the other end, cut off the end seperate the wires and solder the tips so you can easily start putting the tips into the holes.

IMHO trial and error here is going to be your best friend

[arcanise]

some old but good info here it should help you find some info
http://www.oldvcr.tv/projects/index....ode=View&ID=20

[arcanise]

oh and sry for triple post edit button no worky

but it turns out i was wrong most laptop screens use LVDS which is based on DVI

[kayson]

Originally Posted by arcanise

ok that thing attached to the screen that has semi-transparent plastic covering it is the DC-AC adapter figure out what pins power that and try some very low volts like less than 1v DC in those pins and increase very slowly untill you get it glowing at the right brightness.

This is correct, and one thing you can do trial and error on. But if you get a controller, you'd actually be able to adjust brightness on the fly.

IMHO trial and error here is going to be your best friend

I would not do trial and error in general. You don't want to risk damaging your LCD. It's possible that your LCD runs directly from a VGA input, but it could also be designed for a digital interface. Your best bet is to search for some info on the LCD panel. You should be able to find a pinout for it somewhere.

Edit:
Ok so you have a Samsung LTN154AT07. You can find a datasheet here:
http://beyondinfinite.com/lcd/Librar...LTN154AT07.pdf

If you take a look at the pinout, you'll see its a tad complicated, and that you'll need a specific LVDS interface chip. This is why it's probably easiest to buy something yourself. Though if you're brave you could make it yourself, and that would be a fun project

[mistahtokyo]

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=181128

That thread has a bit more info on adapting laptop LCDs for desktop use.

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Very nice finds there, and thanks for the help thus far! I really appreciate people like you all who love helping in areas that people like me do not know much about. I am relatively clueless as it comes to connecting video input/output circuits, and other things that relate to that category. Never done this before

So to test this thing out, I need to run a power adapter somehow, and a way to run the video input. I can easily test this video stuff off my gaming laptop, as it has both HDMI and VGA out. I will take the silver wrap off the screen, and I will expose all wiring so we can get a better look and compare to the schematic and diagrams that somebody saved me time finding already

I'll post again later when I get this done, and I am off right now for more flat black painting.

[kayson]

Originally Posted by |/3|\|0/|/|

So to test this thing out, I need to run a power adapter somehow, and a way to run the video input. I can easily test this video stuff off my gaming laptop, as it has both HDMI and VGA out. I will take the silver wrap off the screen, and I will expose all wiring so we can get a better look and compare to the schematic and diagrams that somebody saved me time finding already .

I would not take the wrap off its just gonna make it difficult to keep it clean. You can figure out which pins belong to what function straight from the pinout and the fact that its a polarized connector so it should have a mark for #1.

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Originally Posted by kayson

I would not take the wrap off its just gonna make it difficult to keep it clean. You can figure out which pins belong to what function straight from the pinout and the fact that its a polarized connector so it should have a mark for #1.

Sure, I could do either one and re-heat shrink it later too.

Painted more drive boxes with black and got a little further. I will wait until the weekend as I ran totally out of both colors. More photos to come

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Kind of lost as of what to do now. Recommendations?

I need to somehow get the correct voltage flowing to the power wires, and use some sort of adapter to make the screen run off of VGA.

http://www.tri-m.com/products/iei/lvdsvga.html How does this work?

http://cgi.ebay.com/DVI-VGA-audio-un...item3f090c9200 Or this?